The public perception is that juvenile crime is out-of- hand and that no one can do anything about it. Research, however, shows that a mere 8% of juvenile offenders arrested and sent to juvenile court commit more than half of all repeat juvenile crimes, including violence. And, something is being done about it! The surprising fact is that this "8%" can be picked out at the time of their first arrest. This book represents seven years of research on 6,400 young people having their first brush with the law in Orange County, California. It provides an exemplary state-supported model now used in six other California counties to curb the rise in the arrest of kids.

A practical, commonsense guide, this book focuses on long-term solutions to the problem of serious repeat juvenile crime and offers a proven pathway for improvement. The 8% Solution informs students, policy makers, criminal justice professionals, juvenile courts, probation departments, and parents of how to mount a successful response. Written in narrative style with a liberal use of anecdotal incidents, this is an easy-to-read description of the characteristics of kids who repeatedly get in trouble with the law and more cost-effective ways to correct the problem.

The public perception is that juvenile crime is out-of- hand and that no one can do anything about it. Research, however, shows that a mere 8% of juvenile offenders arrested and sent to juvenile court commit more than half of all repeat juvenile crimes, including violence. And, something is being done about it! The surprising fact is that this "8%" can be picked out at the time of their first arrest. This book represents seven years of research on 6,400 young people having their first brush with the law in Orange County, California. It provides an exemplary state-supported model now used in six other California counties to curb the rise in the arrest of kids.

A practical, commonsense guide, this book focuses on long-term solutions to the problem of serious repeat juvenile crime and offers a proven pathway for improvement. The 8% Solution informs students, policy makers, criminal justice professionals, juvenile courts, probation departments, and parents of how to mount a successful response. Written in narrative style with a liberal use of anecdotal incidents, this is an easy-to-read description of the characteristics of kids who repeatedly get in trouble with the law and more cost-effective ways to correct the problem.

Gangs have spread throughout the entire sector of society, and what was once viewed as an inner-city problem can now be found everywhere, including suburbia. This guide for teenagers, their families, and impacted communities addresses the youth gang issue in understandable, manageable terms. Quotes from teens themselves provide valuable insight into the problems that can cause kids to join gangs: absent parents, the need for excitement or to belong to a group, following in the footsteps of family members who are involved in gangs. These factors and others are explored (including an examination of the workings of the adolescent mind), and sound solutions are suggested to help kids resist gang membership.

Four distinct sections bring into focus the topic of youth gangs and ways to prevent kids from joining them. Part I describes many basic issues and needs all teens and pre-teens have in common and how these relate to gangs. Part II addresses how and why certain young people enter and sometimes exit gang alliances. Part III focuses on how several integral components of the teen's life and community can work together to resolve youths' involvement with gangs. Part IV analyzes the critical influence of families and the teens themselves as they approach important life choices. Wiener's unique approach includes suggestions and comments from the young people themselves to try to bridge the gap between themselves and the adults in their lives.

Detailed and comprehensive, Serious and Violent Juvenile Offenders presents authoritative discussions by a select group of leading scholars on issues surrounding serious and violent juvenile offenders. This population is responsible for a disproportionate percentage of all crime and poses the greatest challenge to juvenile justice policymakers. Under the skillful editorship of Rolf Loeber and David P. Farrington, this unique volume integrates knowledge about risk and protective factors with information about intervention and prevention programs so that conclusions from each area can inform the other. Current literature on these two areas does not, for the most part, apply directly to serious and violent juvenile offenders. This volume contends that serious and violent juvenile offenders tend to start displaying behavior problems and delinquency early in life, warranting early intervention. It is the contributors? thesis that prevention is never too early. They also maintain, however, that interventions for serious and violent juvenile offenders can never be too late in that effective interventions exist for known serious and violent juvenile offenders.

Augmented by charts, tables, graphs, figures, and an extensive bibliography, Serious and Violent Juvenile Offenders is an excellent reference work and a must read for policy and lawmakers, judges, attorneys, law enforcement personnel, education administrators, researchers, academics, social workers, sociologists, as well as graduate students and interns.

This interesting and accessible volume examines several immigrant populations and explores why waves of youthful crime emerge in some of those populations but not in others. Author Tony Waters uses data from 100 years of Unites States immigration records (particularly in California) to examine immigrant groups such as Laotians, Koreans, and Mexicans in the late 20th century, as well as Mexicans and Molokan Russians in the early 20th century. Crime and Immigrant Youth is a unique study of migration as a process that sometimes leads to youthful crime beyond the norms of either the home or host culture. Water concludes that when an immigrant group has a large population of young males (and not all immigrant groups do), it creates the potential for patterned misunderstandings between immigrant parents and their children. This situation, in turn, provides conditions for a predictable outbreak of crime within deviant subcultures (i.e. gangs), as shown in numerous case examples. Waters also explains how youthful immigrant crime often erupts because of the structural relationships between immigrant groups and the host community rather than the cultural differences imported from abroad.

In recent years, the incidence of violent crime committed by teenagers has escalated, a fact that has hardly escaped the news media. When faced with the challenge of understanding and explaining such occurences in the headlines, one is tempted to rely upon the truism: There are good kids and there are bad kids. Michael D. Kelleher, noted expert on the subject of violence, asserts in When Good Kids Kill that this belief is outdated, oversimplified, and fundamentally wrong. He states that some of the most atrocious murders are, in fact, committed by good kids who have never given a prior indication of violence. Kelleher's book is the first to focus exclusively on homicides committed by previously nonviolent teens, exploring many of the prominent criminal cases covered by the media in recent years. Although individual killings are hard to predict, Kelleher's important new work demonstrates that there are categories of crime that can be attributed to good kids who kill; his work shows for the first time that the young perpetrators of murders that fall into these categories share similar backgrounds and experience. While such crimes as teen mothers disposing of their newborns, sons and daughters murdering their parents, members of cults slaying friends or strangers, and young people murdering the objects of their sexual obsessions are almost always surprising and baffling, Kelleher points out that the killers often exhibit warning signs before erupting into violence. By recognizing these warnings and understanding patterns of experience that can motivate these tragic crimes, the author believes that parents, counselors, and education and law enforcement professionals can begin to address the challenge of increasing teenage violence and ensure a less violent society for our children.

Written by a leading scholar of juvenile justice, this book explores the social and legal changes that have transformed the juvenile court in the last three decades from a nominally rehabilitative welfare agency into a scaled-down criminal court for young offenders. It explores the complex relationship between race and youth crime to explain both the Supreme Court decision to provide delinquents with procedural justice and the more recent political impetus to "get tough" on young offenders. This provocative book will be necessary reading for criminal and juvenile justice scholars, sociologists, legislators, and juvenile justice personnel.

Based on current research supported by the MacArthur Foundation, Zimring determines in American Youth Violence the facts about current and predicted rates of youth violence and analyses policy responses to serious youth violence that have proliferated in the USA. The first part of the book reports on trends in youth violence and demography and evaluates arguments about future trends that have been published recently. Zimring then identifies problems in current youth violence that courts must address and discusses the legal issues involved.

Detailed and comprehensive, Serious and Violent Juvenile Offenders presents authoritative discussions by a select group of leading scholars on issues surrounding serious and violent juvenile offenders. This population is responsible for a disproportionate percentage of all crime and poses the greatest challenge to juvenile justice policymakers. Under the skillful editorship of Rolf Loeber and David P. Farrington, this unique volume integrates knowledge about risk and protective factors with information about intervention and prevention programs so that conclusions from each area can inform the other. Current literature on these two areas does not, for the most part, apply directly to serious and violent juvenile offenders. This volume contends that serious and violent juvenile offenders tend to start displaying behavior problems and delinquency early in life, warranting early intervention. It is the contributors? thesis that prevention is never too early. They also maintain, however, that interventions for serious and violent juvenile offenders can never be too late in that effective interventions exist for known serious and violent juvenile offenders.

Augmented by charts, tables, graphs, figures, and an extensive bibliography, Serious and Violent Juvenile Offenders is an excellent reference work and a must read for policy and lawmakers, judges, attorneys, law enforcement personnel, education administrators, researchers, academics, social workers, sociologists, as well as graduate students and interns.

The public believes that juveniles are to blame for the growth of violence in the United States that began in the mid-1980s. But, whoÆs really to blame for violent crime? Is youth gang involvement in trafficking crack cocaine in inner-cities a key factor? The Evolution of Juvenile Justice and Youth Violence in America explores how juvenile offenders have taken the brunt of crime policyÆs reaction to the high level and recent increase in violent crime in the United States. In the justice system today, juveniles are being tried with adults in criminal courts and incarcerated with them in adult prisons. Taking a historical approach and reviewing current research, author James C. Howell examines the shift in crime policy from an emphasis on treatment and rehabilitation to punishment and how that change is neither philosophically sound nor effective. Long-term solutions, Howell argues, lie in the development of more effective programs, better-matched offender treatment programs, and a more cost-effective juvenile justice system. Written with compassion yet methodologically sound, this volume creates a comprehensive framework that will help communities incorporate best practices and utilize knowledge of risk and protective factors for serious and violent delinquency. Author James C. Howell combines prevention and graduated sanctions in this sensible strategy for dealing with serious, violent, and chronic juvenile offenders. The Evolution of Juvenile Justice and Youth Violence in America is an outstanding resource and text for not only graduate students but also academics, researchers, practitioners, policymakers, professionals in the legal system, and educators.

Why do youths commit crimes? Delinquency and Crime contains essays by nine leading criminologists that seek to answer this question by describing current theories of crime and the research evidence that supports them. The contributors offer perspectives on antisocial peer socialization, social development, interactional theory, behavior genetics, and community determinants. Each essay explores the practical implication of the authors' theoretical work for crime prevention and control.

Why is crime persistent over generations, within families and within certain individuals? Is crime the manifestation of an inherited latent trait or the result of a failure of socialization and norm-setting processes? Why do youths commit crimes? Delinquency and Crime contains essays by nine leading criminologists that seek to answer these and other questions by describing current theories of crime and the research evidence that supports them. The authors' views on crime causation go beyond traditional criminological theories of strain, cultural deviance, social control, differential association and social learning to present emerging and integrated models of the origins of crime, including antisocial peer socialization, social development, interactional theory, behavior genetics, and community determinants. Each essay explores the practical implication of the authors' theoretical work for crime prevention and control.

"This sourcebook provides outstandingly important, up-to-date, and comprehensive reviews of knowledge about the prevention and treatment of serious, violent, and chronic juvenile offenders. It is an essential reference work for scholars, practitioners, and policymakers who are interested in this topic." --David P. Farrington, Professor of Psychological Criminology, University of Cambridge "At a time when the basic unit of policy about youth crime is often the sound bite, this volume shows the value of information and sustained analysis in creating a balanced program for dealing with the serious juvenile offender. The book is of value both as a specific set of youth crime proposals and as a model of the policy planning process in a difficult area." --Franklin E. Zimring, William Simon Professor of Law and Director, Earl Warren Legal Institute, University of California at Berkeley This indispensable sourcebook sculpts an alternative response to juvenile crime. The rise of violent crimes committed by youths and the lack of effective responses to treating juvenile offenders have underscored the dire need for a different approach. Some of the most respected experts in juvenile justice answer that need in this authoritative volume, presenting a balanced, humane, and effective strategy for change. The result is a comprehensive approach to preventing, treating, and controlling serious juvenile criminal behavior. Thorough analysis of strategy implementation complements discussion of core issues such as controlling delinquency, developing early and intensive intervention programs, risk assessment, and classification tools. The inclusion of special chapters on recent gang research and juveniles in the criminal court system make this volume the essential up-to-date resource for juvenile justice specialists. A Sourcebook: Serious, Violent, and Chronic Juvenile Offenders gathers together information integral to the work of policymakers, lawmakers, law enforcement personnel, and social workers as well as criminal justice researchers, sociologists, and advanced students in these fields.

Over the past decade, a growing body of research has delineated the nature and extent of delinquency, as well as the role of the juvenile justice system. Despite such research, the causes and consequences of delinquency and the role of the justice system remain poorly understood, particularly in regard to minority groups. This book is intended to meet a two-fold need: to extend research into the area of delinquency generally and to further research into the sociology of Black youths. The author explores critical issues such as the rates of delinquency among Black youths, explanations of delinquency, and the juvenile justice system's treatment of Black youths, as well as the policy implications for designing culturally sensitive and effective delinquency treatment and prevention programs. Joseph's work will be of interest to scholars in sociology/criminology, criminal justice, and Black studies.

The experiences of minority youths in the juvenile justice system are strikingly different from those of their white counterparts. In response to the overrepresentation of minority youths in confinement, Congress amended the Juvenile Justice & Delinquency Prevention Act to require states to investigate the imbalance and develop action plans to fix problem situations. In this carefully edited volume, the contributors note the extent and sources of disparate treatment of youths within juvenile justice and identify the need to respond to this bias. Findings from research and provocative analysis of topics such as racial difference in encounters with police, in urban juvenile court, in confinement and punishment, and among groups within juvenile justice awaken the reader to the variety of racial bias in the system. The authors also offer creative and practical policy recommendations and strategies for overcoming racial inequity in the juvenile justice process. Practitioners and researchers in juvenile justice, criminology, corrections, policing, sociology, and ethnic studies will find the cross-section of information in the volume enlightening. The material presented also ideally fits supplementary text needs for coursework dealing with race and crime. "This volume delivers a full and complete view of one of the most critical issues in juvenile justice. Rousing and informative, the book comes highly recommended." --Barry Krisberg, Ph.D., President, National Council on Crime and Delinquency, San Francisco

Published in cooperation with the University of Michigan School of Social Work As a counselor or therapist, wouldn't it be useful to have a resource that clearly presents effective how-to guidelines for rehabilitating juvenile offenders? In Group Counseling with Juvenile Delinquents, Ferrara explores all aspects of counseling this special population, from the first group encounter through evaluating the effectiveness of the group. He examines various components of the group encounter including establishing a safe, helpful environment, replacing delinquent behaviors with prosocial ones, and responding to the specific needs of each juvenile delinquent. Included in this valuable volume are key points for conducting group sessions, a workbook and scenarios to use directly with group members, instructions for training staff, and a posttest for evaluating the effectiveness of the groups. "There is an extensive and useful discussion of intervention in terms of both traditional, guided group interactions and the more contemporary cognitive behavioral strategies. . . . Much effort has been exerted by Ferrara to insure that the program as presented has a strong empirical foundation. To this end, data and caveates are included as appropriate. As Ferrara wisely notes in his Preface, his program is likely to be most effective with those youths who would not have spontaneously self-corrected but are not seriously disturbed, chronic offenders. Among the various components of the group encounter program, the inclusion of a post-test for evaluating effectiveness is particularly encouraging." --Child & Family Behavior Therapy "It is obvious the author is experienced in group counseling of juvenile delinquents, in developing group counseling programs in juvenile correction facilities, and grounded in theories relevant to treating offenders. The book is succinctly and clearly written." -Social Work with Groups

"A marvelous exploration of the connections between culture and behavior in modern America....[The author] deeply illuminates our understanding of the contemporary US."--William M. Tuttle, Jr., University of Kansas

A study of juvenile delinquency and the treatment practice of the courts in different areas of England and Wales.

"Hidden Truth" takes the reader inside a Rhode Island juvenile prison to explore broader questions of how poor, disenfranchised young men come to terms with masculinity and identity. Adam D. Reich, who worked with inmates to produce a newspaper, writes vividly and memorably about the young men he came to know, and in the process extends theories of masculinity, crime, and social reproduction into a provocative new paradigm. Reich suggests that young men's participation in crime constitutes a game through which they achieve 'outsider masculinity'. Once in prison these same youths are forced to reconcile their criminal practices with a new game and new 'insider masculinity' enforced by guards and administrators.

"Girls in Trouble with the Law offers readers a brilliant window for re-viewing the gender, race, and class politics of juvenile justice. Readers will be filled with outrage, and yet fueled by Schaffner's passionate sense of possibility and vision for 'what must be.'"--Michelle Fine, Distinguished Professor of Psychology, The Graduate Center, CUNY "This is a superb work, intermingling poetry, narrative, interviews, and examples to create a fascinating overview of what girls experience in the juvenile corrections system, as well as how they are perceived by the people entrusted with their care. Schaffner's book is well-conceived and beautifully written."--Lynn Chancer, author of High Profile Crimes: When Legal Cases Become Social Causes In Girls in Trouble with the Law, sociologist Laurie Schaffner takes us inside female detention centers and explores the worlds of those who are incarcerated. Across the country, she finds that an overwhelming majority of young women are from ethnic or racial minority groups, and most have experienced some form of sexual or physical assault. Focusing on the girls' experiences of violence and the inequities of the juvenile corrections system, Schaffner explores three central questions. How have changing social norms of sexuality and emotional expression influenced adolescent girls' trangressions? What do authority, consent, and choice mean to urban women in trouble? How do they experience and understand violent episodes in their lives? Offering a critical assessment of what she describes as a gender-archaic juvenile legal system, Schaffner makes a compelling argument that current policies do not go far enough to empower disadvantaged girls so that they can overcome the social limitations of gender, sexual, and racial/ethnic discrimination that continue to plague young women growing up in the contemporary United States. Laurie Schaffner is an assistant professor of sociology at the University of Illinois at Chicago. A Volume in the Rutgers Series in Childhood Studies, edited by Myra Bluebond-Langner.

A Prescription for Stopping Youth Violence Before It Starts

"A clear, compelling, and much-needed examination of what causes youth violence in small towns and big cities all over America, and how one community was able to bring many partners and pieces of a complex puzzle together to curb youth violence in its neighborhoods. This book is an important reminder that youth violence is preventable. It should be read by every elected official, public health professional, community leader, advocate, and parent ready to move beyond despair or fear and take action."
-Marian Wright Edelman, president, Children's Defense Fund

"Essential reading for public officials, concerned parents, and citizens."
-Senator Edward M. Kennedy

"An eye-opening and well-documented book by two of the foremost pioneers in violence prevention efforts in America. Through their own personal stories and an astute analysis of the complexities of violence prevention initiatives, the authors argue that violence is learned behavior that can be significantly reduced. This is an inspiring book; I highly recommend it."
-Alvin F. Poussaint, M.D., professor of psychiatry, Harvard Medical School and Judge Baker Children's Center, Boston, Massachusetts

When twelve- year- old Jesse Pomeroy tortured seven small boys in the Boston area and then went on to brutally murder two other children, one of the most striking aspects of his case was his inability ever to answer the question of why he did what he did. Whether in court or in the newspapers, many experts tried to explain his horrible acts- and distance the rest of society from them. Despite those efforts, and attempts since, the mystery remains. In this book, Dawn Keetley details the story of Pomeroy's crimes and the intense public outcry. She explores the two reigning theories at the time- that he was shaped before birth when his pregnant mother visited a slaughterhouse and that he imitated brutal acts found in popular dime novels. Keetley then thoughtfully offers a new theory: that Pomeroy was a psychopath who revealed our potential for brutality and tested societal efforts to manage behavior. The reaction to Pomeroy's acts, then and now, demonstrates the struggle to account for those aspects of human nature that remain beyond our ability to understand them.

Tackling juvenile offending has become a key part of crime reduction strategies. The articles selected for this volume examine juvenile offending from various critical perspectives and represent the work of the most influential international figures in the field. The issues addressed include: the different needs and perspectives of youth offenders; whether offenders should be treated differently from others because of their age; recommendations of policy changes; identification of risk factors; issues surrounding the sentencing of juvenile offenders; and the relevance of restorative justice.

A significant percentage of sexual abuse in the United States is committed by juveniles, and mental health professionals increasingly receive requests to evaluate these juveniles. With an emphasis on practicality and utility, Juvenile Sex Offenders fills a gap in the current literature by providing a thoughtful, thorough approach to evaluating and treating youth who have committed sexual offenses or have engaged in sexually abusive behavior.
Serving as a functional guide, this text expertly prepares clinicians for the challenging task of evaluating juveniles, picking up where traditional clinical training often falls short and providing state-of-the-art assessment techniques as well as an overview of treatment modalities. Chapters highlight the many ways in which juveniles charged with sexual offenses differ from adults, the common dilemmas facing evaluators, and the changing perceptions and legal trends with respect to youth crime. Chapters also cover sexual development and behaviors among children and adolescents, risk factors and risk assessment, case examples for working with attorneys, and interventions and pharmacological approaches. Clinical practitioners with limited forensic training will benefit from the guidance on formal forensic evaluation and the review of literature on assessment approaches specific to youth, while forensic experts will gain developmental perspective in evaluating and treating young sexual offenders. Set in a hopeful and optimistic framework, Juvenile Sex Offenders is a practical, empirically based guide on the best practices in evaluating and treating this poorly understood and underserved population.